Portable display systems are frequently used to display digital image content such as still images, image sequences, streams of image content and/or text and graphics. Often, such systems are also capable of generating audible signals based upon audio content such as audio content that is associated with the image content. For example, Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) players are known that are capable of reading data from an optical disc containing image content and associated audio and converting this image content and audio data into human viewable and audible form. These systems are typically used in conjunction with commercially produced optical disks such as feature length motion pictures and audio disks. Advanced computer users and the owners of currently expensive home electronic optical disk recorders also can create optical disks having personally selected image content and audio collections. However, such optical discs are often time consuming for home users to produce and edit, for example, to include new content. Accordingly, even when home users produce optical disks having personal content stored thereon, the personal content often quickly becomes outdated. What is needed therefore is a portable video player that is capable of receiving personal image and audio content and updating this content in a simple and efficient manner.
Thus, portable systems having rewritable semi-conductor memory, and so-called hard disks, are therefore preferred for use in portable digital display devices. However, the high cost of such types of rewriteable memory has traditionally prohibited the use of such memory in a portable display device. Recently however, there has been a rapid increase in storage sizes and a concomitant reduction in the cost of various forms of rewritable memory. Accordingly, an increasing number of portable display systems have been developed that are capable of carrying very large collections of image and/or audio content. A user typically exchanges image content and/or audio content with the rewriteable memory in such portable display systems using a computer system such as a personal computer. In this way, the personal computer can be used to provide user interface capabilities, processing power, customized automatic data transfer software, archival storage and communication capabilities to facilitate the process of exchanging image content and/or audio content with the rewritable memory in the digital display device. This makes the use of such devices significantly more attractive to consumers and a variety of products of this type are currently known.
Examples of commercially available portable display systems include the Archos AV320 handheld entertainment center sold by Archos, Inc., Irvine, Calif., USA, the eFilm PicturePAD™ sold by Delkin Devices, Inc. Poway, Calif., USA and the ViewSonic Personal Video Player, sold by ViewSonic Corporation, Walnut, Calif., USA and the Sharp-AV 300 sold by Sharp Electronics Corporation Romeoville, Ill. U.S.A. Each of these players contain rewriteable memories that are large enough to store collections of image and audio content. These devices obtain content that has been captured and converted into digital form and selected units can obtain content by way of capture. For example, the AV300 has a docking station that enables audio and video signals to be input into the AV300 which records these signals.
Further, such high capacity rewriteable memories are being incorporated into products such as personal digital assistants, digital cameras, and portable telephones and other devices that have video displays, enabling such devices to be used to store and present collections of image content. Examples of portable video players of this type include a personal digital assistant, the Palm Zire 71 sold by Palm Inc., Milpitas, Calif., USA which is capable of presenting video content using, for example, software known as FireViewer™ sold by Firepad Inc, Costa Mesa, Calif., USA. Other personal digital assistants use programs such as Windows media player, provided by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash., USA, Shockwave, QuickTime media player provided by Apple Computer, Cupertino, Calif., USA, FlashPlayer provided by Macromedia Inc., San Francisco, Calif., USA and/or players compatible with the standards set forth by the Moving Pictures Export Group such as such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or later versions of the MPEG standard to present image content and/or audio content stored therein.
High capacity rewriteable memories that are capable of storing and sharing image content and/or audio content but that do not incorporate displays. Examples of this type of device include the Digital Wallet sold by Minds@work LLC, Irvine, Calif. USA, the EZ Digimagic DM220 portable CD-RW drive sold by and the Buslink Photo Bank sold by Buslink Inc. These devices typically function to provide a large portable memory that can store data captured by digital cameras and the like without using a personal computer.
Despite the recent increase in the memory capacity of rewritable memories, the demands placed upon such rewritable memories continues to outstrip the available capacity. In particular, the use of image sequences and streaming image information rather than still images greatly increases the capacity requirements for rewritable memory in display and/or storage device. Further, the desire of many users to store significant collections of audio content also greatly increases the requirements for rewritable memory capacity. Thus, while the rewritable memory capacity available in a portable display device has increased greatly, consumers can find that they cannot always store as much content in such memory as they would like. Moreover many consumers are concerned that portable display and/or storage devices that incorporate such rewritable memory are too vulnerable to loss or destruction to serve as a consumer's only storage means for personal imagery. Thus, consumers often use devices such as the portable video display devices to store a limited collection of image and audio content and also use a personal computer to store an archival collection containing a complete collection of their content.
While the personal computer provides a uniquely valuable way to store the image and audio content, such an arrangement requires a meaningful amount of oversight and active data management. For the personal computer to act as an archive for the image and audio content stored on the rewritable memory of a portable display device it is necessary to maintain both a collection of image content and/or audio content on the portable display device and the collection of image content and/or audio content on the personal computer.
The management of file transfers between rewritable memory in a portable display device can be controlled manually as is described in Publication No. US 2003/0063196 A1 entitled “Handheld Portable Interactive Data Storage Device” filed on May 8, 2000. The '196 publication describes a portable interactive data storage device that includes a disk drive, a microprocessor, a USB port, and a data storage card slot. The device also includes a small liquid crystal matrix display and a small number of user controls. The device of the '196 publication is configured for data storage, rather than as a small general purpose computer, and preferably does not include a keyboard. This device is capable of receiving digital image content and/or audio content not only from a personal computer but also from other sources of data such as memory cards provided by other devices. In this regard, the data storage card slot is configured to accept small data storage cards, such as flash memory PC cards or CompactFlash cards through a PC card adapter. The disk drive has a substantially larger capacity than the data storage cards. For example, using the storage a user loads data onto a data storage card using a portable electronic device, such as a digital camera. The user then inserts the card into the storage device and uploads the data to the disk drive. The card can then be repeatedly reused in the digital camera by uploading the data to the storage device after each use.
Eventually, the user returns to a computer and connects the storage device to the computer through the USB port and uploads the accumulated data such as digital image content and/or digital audio in MP3 form to the computer. The device acts as a conventional disk drive and is managed by the user of the computer in this manner with data being transferred between the device and the computer as the user would transfer the data between two drives on the personal computer. This method of transfer, however, requires user involvement at all stages in the data transfer which can be tedious and challenging for some users.
Typically this challenge has been addressed in the art using synchronization software located on the personal computer. The synchronization software builds a database on the personal computer that is a virtual copy of the database in the memory of the portable device. That is, a generally exact copy of the data stored in the display device is also stored on the personal computer. Thus, to alter what is stored on the display device it is necessary to manually make changes to the database in the personal computer. What is needed is a more automated way to manage such databases.
This need is particularly acute when a user wishes to effectively extend the amount of content that can be stored on the portable device by modifying image and/or audio content so that content is stored on the rewritable memory of the portable display device in a manner that reduces the amount of memory that is required to store this content. Typically, such modifications are made in a manner that is intended to reduce the amount of storage capacity used to store the information without reducing the apparent quality of the content as presented by the portable display device. For example, when a user of the FireViewer software wishes to store image content on a Palm Zire 71 for presentation using the FireVewer software, the user will process the content using software known as Fire Converter also provided by FirePad, Inc. This software converts images and image content into a form that is adapted for presentation using the display system incorporated in the Palm Zire 71. Because this Palm Zire 71 has a display having an imaging resolution that is significantly smaller than the imaging resolution typically found in digital images and/or sequences of images and/or streams of image information, the FireConverter software can process image content to form a lower resolution version of this content that can be stored on the Palm Zire 71 in rewritable memory. This lower resolution version uses less rewritable memory than would be used had the original image content been directly downloaded to the Palm Zire 71. In this way, the data storage requirements associated with image content can be effectively reduced when such content is stored in the portable device.
However, when using existing software, the archival image content must be manually converted, manually identified for download to the portable display device, and manually organized for viewing on the hand held device. Further, to the extent that the archival image content converted by the FireConverter was conveyed to the computer using the Palm Zire 71, it is likely that the user of the Palm Zire 71 will want to replace the archival image content data with the converted image content. The removal of the archival image content is also performed manually.
Thus what is needed is a more automated method for accessing, exchanging and processing image content and audio content data that permits a user to use a portable display device to store a large collection of image content and/or audio content on a portable display device in a manner that conserves available memory in the display device. A further need is for independent data archiving and a more automated method for extracting acquired image content from a display device, processing this acquired content for use by the display device and conveying the acquired content to the display device in a useful manner. What is also needed is a method for managing acquired content that more fully automates the storage, presentation, organization and format of acquired content stored on the display device.